A Maryland man, mistakenly deported to El Salvador and subsequently detained in a notorious prison, endured “severe beatings” and “torture,” according to newly filed court documents.
Lawyers representing Kilmar Ábrego García, 29, allege that guards’ assaults inflicted visible injuries within a day of his arrival at the CECOT prison.
The Trump administration had previously alleged that Mr. Ábrego García was affiliated with the Salvadoran gang MS-13, an accusation his legal team and family vehemently deny.
Despite initial claims that Mr. Ábrego García would never return to the U.S., he was extradited to Tennessee in June to face human trafficking charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
Court documents filed Wednesday as part of a lawsuit brought by his wife against the Trump administration, detail that Mr. Ábrego García and 20 other detainees were subjected to repeated beatings upon arrival at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Centre (Cecot).
The documents allege that Mr. Ábrego García and the other deported inmates “were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows, bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day, and minimal access to sanitation”.
Mr. Ábrego García also alleges that he and other prisoners were “forced to kneel” from 9 PM to 6 AM, “with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion”.
Guards allegedly threatened to confine him with gang members who would “tear” him apart.
The complaint states that this mistreatment led to a 30lbs (14kg) weight loss within the first two weeks of his incarceration in El Salvador.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has previously asserted that his country’s prisons are “clean, orderly, free from abuses, unsanitary conditions, beatings, or murders”.
During a visit to the White House earlier this year, President Bukele expressed support for the Trump administration’s deportation policies.
The Trump administration has requested the federal judge in Maryland overseeing the case to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing it has been overtaken by Mr. Ábrego García’s return to the U.S. His wife initially filed the suit following his deportation.
Mr. Ábrego García first entered the U.S. illegally in 2011. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from deportation, determining he could face danger from gangs if returned to El Salvador.
However, in March 2025, the Maryland resident was deported and initially held in El Salvador’s Cecot mega-prison, in what Trump administration officials later conceded was a mistake. A judge ordered the government to “facilitate” his return, but White House officials initially resisted.
Following his return to face charges in June, then-Attorney General Pam Bondi stated that “this is what American justice looks like”.
He has denied any wrongdoing, and his attorneys have characterized the trafficking charges as “preposterous”.
In late June, a federal judge in Tennessee ruled Mr. Ábrego García eligible for release, but he has remained in jail amid concerns from his legal team that he could be swiftly deported again if released.
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